After graduating from Birmingham-Southern College, she sang in the Independent Presbyterian Church choir for 34 years and ran Time Step Dance Studio – with performance extravaganzas at the Alabama Theatre each year – for 29 years.

And though she never was involved in theater at Crestline Elementary School or Brooke Hill School (which is now Altamont), Beard recalls a turning point for her.

“I remember seeing ‘The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter’ that Carl Stewart put on at Birmingham Festival Theatre, and I just went nuts over it,” she recalls. “I thought the show was fabulous. I was 23 or 24 at the time and said I’ve got to get involved with theater. Not necessarily on stage, but with props and other things.”

Decades later, on Sunday she’ll be in the audience at Radio City Music Hall, a Tony nominee for helping to produce “A Christmas Story, The Musical,” which is up for theater’s top award, best musical of the year.

Louise Beard's Tony nominee pin.

“It’s a dream I didn’t even know I had,” Beard says of the Tony recognition. “A dream would have been to invest in a Broadway musical, but it has just accelerated so quickly. I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to be involved in something like this.”

The dream began to form several years ago when, because of knees that wouldn’t let her dance any longer, Beard gave up her dance studio.

“I wanted to continue doing something in theater and thought I’d give producing a shot,” says Beard, who is married to John Beard and lives in BIrmingham.

A mutual theater friend, Philip Mann, who had helped produce “The Drowsy Chaperone” on Broadway, introduced Beard to Roy Miller, who was a lead producer for both “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “A Christmas Story.” She put some money into a musical called “Minsky’s,” and although the show never made it to New York, she was hooked. Her resume now includes almost 20 shows and movies, including “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Ragtime” and “The Scottsboro Boys.”

But with “A Christmas Story,” based on the ubiquitous holiday movie, she is a producer, rather than just an investor. Her name is above the title, meaning that if it should win tonight’s Tony, Beard will be considered a winner.

The show ran on Broadway during the holiday season in 2012, and though it has closed, it’s expected to be back, either on Broadway or on tour, this holiday season.

“This show, in particular, is and will be a perfect seasonal show, a perfect large show, a perfect show to incorporate children,” says Beard, whose fellow producers include Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in the movie version. “In 10 years, when they’re playing it in high schools and colleges, we’ll still get checks.”

“A Christmas Story” has stiff Tony competition Sunday – up against critical darlings “Kinky Boots” and “Matilda: The Musical” -- but Beard is planning to make the best of her first shot at theater gold. She’s attending the show with her daughter, Lanford, who writes for Entertainment Weekly magazine, and she’s going to dress like a winner – Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer.

“I was in one of Del Shores’ movies … ‘Blues for Willadean,’ and I had two lines in the movie, and one was said to Octavia Spencer,” Beard says. “The next year, she won every award out there for ‘The Help.’ She uses the designer Tadashi Shoji. I saw her Oscars dress at Nordstrom, and I got it. I’m giving myself just a little Oscar tinge to my Tony moment.”

Afterward, she and Lanford will attend the Tony party at the Plaza Hotel.

“All of this you pay for,” Beard says with a laugh. “Nothing is free. The ticket to the Tonys is not even like buying a ticket to a Tony-nominated show on Broadway. It’s expensive. But you know what? It’s maybe a once-in-a-lifetime situation, and I’m going to ride this wave.”